Georgia Southern Announces Plans for FBS Feasibility Study

It's been a while since my last post, but here's some fantastic news to post. GSU Athletic Director Sam Baker has been authorized to hire a consultant to study the feasiblity of Georgia Southern moving its football program from the Football Championship Series (I-AA) level to the Bowl Conference Series (I-A) level. It's breaking news, with more sure to follow, but what a great early Christmas surprise!

What A Way To Go

When your number's up, your number's up. But some people's numbers come up in a most unusual way. This slideshow gives some of the most bizarre.

Mark Steyn: World should give thanks for America

As we celebrate the great American holiday Thanksgiving, columnist Mark Steyn explains in this excellent column why the world should look to America and be thankful for us.

Knew Zaxby's Back When It Was Just Zax

While attending Georgia Southern in the very early 90's, my friends and I spent countless hours eating chicken fingers and wings at a restaurant on campus called Zax. The chicken fingers were the best, the wings pretty awesome. But the dipping sauce for the chicken was unbelievable. After graduation, I thought I was leaving Zax behind, one of those great college memories. I missed the chicken fingers and that fantastic sauce. Fortunately, teh missing didn't last long.

Seventeen years since that original Zax opened, there are now over 400 Zaxby's in ten states. The chain is growing, moving outside the Southeast. But they're staying true to the recipes that got them there. Including the secret Zax sauce.

This recipe, posted on Recipelink.com, is about "half-right", according to Zaxby's Co-founder Tony Townley...

Zaxby's Chicken Fingers Dipping Sauce (Zax Sauce)

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• lots of black pepper

Mix together the mayo, ketchup and garlic powder blending well. Add Worcestershire sauce and blend well. Cover surface of sauce with black pepper until just coated. Blend well. Repeat process covering surface of sauce with black pepper and stir until blended well. Refrigerate for at least two hours prior to use to allow the flavors to mingle. Serve with chicken fingers.

Still Taking Votes For Sumter Regional Hospital

About three weeks ago I told you about the hospital in Americus being in the running to win a free MRI machine. That's the hospital that was destroyed by a tornado in March. Well, lots of people have voted and they're currently in first place, but there are still a little more than six weeks remaining to vote. If you haven't done so, please go to the contest web site and vote. If you have, please do so again.

Ready For Some Football?

The warden of a Clayton County, Georgia prison has requested satellite TV be installed so prisoners can watch Monday Night Football on ESPN. Next they'll want pizza and beer.

Scott and Elizabeth, this is where your tax money is going!

Just In Time For Christmas

Take a look back at the Worst Toys of 2006.

While we're at it, how about the Most Dangerous Toys of 2006.

Radar Magazine has their list of the 10 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time.

Here's my personal favorite... the 25 Most Baffling Toys From Around The World.

What Does The Dollar's Drop In Value Really Mean?

The value of the dollar vs. other currencies has been dropping, and it's causing some folks to worry about the health of the U.S. economy. Mark Dow, writing for TheStreet.com, says there's no reason to predict doom and gloom. He says the dollar's depreciation is more about other countries finding confidence in their own currencies than a lack of confidence in our own economy. In fact, Dow says it's a sign that the global economy is in "unprecedentedly great shape."

Dow's analysis is detailed and clear. It's also well worth the read.

A Bit Of What's To Come If You Vote Hillary

It's the little things that show us the true content of someone's character...

The Hillary campaign marched on through rural Iowa a few weeks ago, and stopped at a roadside diner. The candidate bellied up to the lunch counter, had a sandwich and chatted up the waitress. The waitress, Anita Esterday, was honest with Clinton about her need to work two to three jobs. It made for a great photo op, and fodder for speeches Hillary would later make.

Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."

If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.

That what Hillary said. She understood how tough it was for the waitress, struggling to get by. And she would make it easier. But wait...

Esterday does not think Clinton got it. The waitress Hillary spoke about thinks the self-proclaimed next President didn't understand.

I think... maybe, she just didn't care.

Turns out Hillary and her entourage failed to leave a tip.

"I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday said. "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day.

The Great Clinton Hope, Version 2.0, used the waitress as a political talking point. She used the woman's plight to promote herself.

She claims to understand, to empathize, to care.

She wants to give hope, trust, opportunity.

But when it came right down to it, when she had a one-on-one chance to make a small difference in one person's life, when she had the opportunity for a small gesture of gratitude and compassion... she just walked away.

She gave nothing.

----------------------

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign says it did leave a tip after all. From the ABC news report...

ABC News' Eloise Harper contacted Brad Crawford, manager of Maid-Rite caught in the political mixer, who said the senator's staff did pay a tip but "it might have not been disbursed properly."

Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming ‘Greatest Scam in History’

What's to say? John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, is quite the skeptic. Read the man's words for yourself...

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minute documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend.

More on Lake Levels and Water Shortage

For more information on the drought and its affect on lake levels across Georgia, as well as the Atlanta area's water shortage in general, here are a couple of good resources.

First, the Atlanta Water Shortage Blog. It's intended to serve as a single point for the latest news about this situation.

Next, here's a PDF file from the US Army Corps of Engineers. It provides some information on lake levels, what kind of levels are necessary for water intake and electrical power generation, etc. Of course, this is from the Corps, who many believe to have some blame in the ongoing crisis.

Before You Give

A couple of weeks ago, two of our close friends gave us a very nice desk for our home office. Our old desk was still usable, but was a bit small for our needs and was starting to show its age. After getting the new desk set up, we carried the old one to Goodwill. While it was well used, there was still some life in it. We also threw in some other items we no longer needed. We are big believers in giving to charity. I've always given to Goodwill and the Salvation Army. I've seen their work, and I trust them.

They aren't all so easily trusted. Tonight, WSB-TV in Atlanta aired a segment during their news on people who collect money from motorists at traffic lights, supposedly for church-related charities. They appear to be scamming people out of their money.

There are so many "charitable" organizations today that it can be hard to tell the legitimate ones from the fake ones. I stumbled across a web site that was designed to help. It's called Charity Navigator, and it bills itself as "America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."

You can find evaluations of hundreds of charitable organizations across the country. You can learn how much of the money the organizations raise actually goes to the cause, and how much goes for program and administrative expenses; see how their CEO's are paid; even see if they are in financial trouble. It's a good place to study up on a charity before you give, so you know your donation is going to good use.

The Sherman Mustang

Wow... some guy dropped the 1100 cubic inch V8 engine from a WWII Sherman Tank into a 1970 Mustang. Wow.

Invisibility On Battlefield

British military researchers have unveiled technology that could be used to make military forces and machinery "invisible" on the battlefield. Pretty cool.